Witches Brew (Natsu X Lucy)
by BrokenIntoxication
Summary: Natsu suddenly falls ill and it's up to Lucy, Happy, Wendy, Carla and Porlyusica to figure out the cause. What could possibly make Natsu sick? What will they do once they find the cause?
1. Only Human

"Those Fairy Tail wizards is will pay," cackled Old Lady Eliza as she tossed something green and slimy into the pot. There was a splash and then a sizzle. Eliza continued to laugh then smiled to herself.

"Just a dash of this," she muttered adding something brown and sticky into the brew. Old Lady Eliza wiped her hands on her ratty dress.

"Mmmmm," she hummed with her smile still there. "Aaand we're done," she exclaimed balling her hands into fists. She shook them excitedly. "Just to bottle it up all nice and pretty now," the old woman mumbled as she continued to hum. Eliza picked up a small pear shaped bottle and popped the cork off the top. While humming her strangely happy death march she filled the bottle with a quick swish in the cauldron. She pushed the cork back in the neck of the now aqua colored bottle. Eliza smiled to herself as she held it up to admire it.

. . .

"I feel...weird," Natsu said leaning down on the bar.

Lucy looked over at him with furrowed brows, "What do you mean Natsu?"

"Are you feeling sick?" asked Mirajane who was standing behind the bar.

"I...I don't know," Natsu responded picking his head up. He brought a hand to his face, "I don't feel like this a lot...I think I'm hot?" he asked.

Lucy frowned and reached over to place her hand on Natsu's forehead. "You're definitely much warmer than you should be...I think," she said. Lucy sat there carefully studying Natsu. She had no idea what his body temperature normally was, but he did seem a little feverish. She had noticed he seemed a bit too quiet when he entered the guild this morning. Of course no one else commented on Natsu's behavior. It wasn't exactly odd for him to take it easy the day after a tough job. There had just been something about the way he was acting that seemed strange to Lucy. Now it came to no surprise that he wasn't feeling well.

She frowned when she saw bags under his eyes. Lucy had no idea if he was sleeping properly, he usually slept just fine. If he didn't she was sure she'd hear about it. She made note that he looked a bit pale as well. Natsu spent a good amount of time outside, so his skin was never exactly fair. Now, however; he looked almost ghostly.

"Are you in pain Natsu? Does anything hurt?" asked Mirajane who was also frowning now and holding a serving tray close to her chest.

"No...not really. I just get weird feelings in waves…" he responded with a shiver. He groaned afterwards and leaning on the bar, put his head in one hand.

"Natsu…" Lucy mumbled as she gently placed a hand on his back. He definitely felt warm now.

"Ow.." Lucy said as she picked her hand up. "You're even hotter now Natsu…" she added shaking out her hand.

"Yeah...I'm sorry Lucy...maybe you shouldn't touch me," Natsu said as he flashed her a weak smile.

Lucy looked down at her hand and then back at Natsu. He was worse now. It had only been about a minute or two since he first started complaining and he was most certainly already worse. She noticed he was sweating too. Every so often he would also shiver and groan. Each time he groaned he became visibly more miserable.

Lucy and Mirajane shot at each other a worried look and then glanced at Natsu. He was sitting there with his eyes closed. His elbows were on the bar with his head in both of his hands.

"My head hurts now...I don't know what's wrong with me. I never get sick," Natsu whined with his hands still covering his face.

Happy who had been with Carla at a nearby table, happened to notice Natsu. When he saw his human partner's body language, he stopped mid conversation and flew right over.

"Natsu, what's wrong?" Happy asked hovering. Natsu didn't answer him and just groaned instead.

Lucy looked at Happy and said, "It seems Natsu is sick. We don't know why he is, but maybe Wendy could help."

"Wha? Natsu is sick? But, but he was fine this morning," Happy said landing on the bar. He went to touch Natsu's arm, but was shrugged off. "You shouldn't touch me, Happy. I feel bad enough without having accidentally burned anyone," Natsu snapped.

Happy pulled away from Natsu completely and frowned. "It's-it's not like you to be so grumpy Natsu...I'm sorry you're not feeling w-well but…" Happy muttered as his eyes filled with tears. He sat down on the bar and muttered, "I'm not gonna cry…"

Mirajane gently stroked the back of Happy's head. "Happy please don't be upset. Natsu's not well so he'd probably like a little space is all," she whispered to him.

"I-I know," Happy responded sniffling.

Lucy looked at Happy, then at Natsu. Natsu was covering his face with his hands, while his body shook. Lucy bit her lower lip. She wanted to scold Natsu for being curt to Happy, but she'd never seen him in so much pain before. Lucy swiveled around on the bar stool so she was facing Wendy and Carla. "Wendy? Could you take a look at Natsu please?" she asked the young girl with the blue pigtails.

Wendy jumped up and responded, "Of course." She ran up to Natsu and Carla followed close behind. "Natsu would you please turn to face me?" she asked in a sweet voice. Natsu just sat there, still facing the bar. His back was slowly rising and falling as beads of sweat dripped down. Wendy took a deep breath, turned to Lucy and asked, "Um...maybe we should take him to the infirmary?"

"That's a great idea Wendy," Lucy responded. "Happy would you mind carrying him?" Lucy asked.

"Okay," Happy said. He stood up, sprouted wings and flew over to Natsu.

"Just be careful to grab only his clothing," Lucy added as she stood up herself.

"Aye," Happy answered as he grabbed onto Natsu's shirt. Happy easily lifted Natsu up and began to fly him to the back of the guild. Natsu groaned as his form floated over the ground. "Natsu...are you okay?" Happy asked now hovering. Natsu continued to groan as his eyes bugged out. His hands shot up to cover his mouth.

"Happy please put him down," Wendy asked. Happy did as Wendy suggested and then said, "But he never usually gets motion sick when I pick him up…"

"Well he _is_ ill," Carla said with her arms crossed.

"I guess it wasn't a good idea to just pick him up after all," Lucy said. She walked back to the bar and asked, "Mirajane do you have a paper bag?"

"I do," Mirajane responded as she bent down to dig around beneath the bar. In a moment she found a small brown paper bag. Mirajane turned to look at Natsu. "Oh my, you'd better bring this to him quickly," she said handing the bag over.

"Thanks," Lucy mumbled with a sigh. She walked over to Natsu who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, with his hands still covering his mouth. "Here," Lucy said as she held the bag out to him. He grabbed it and everyone except Wendy, who was kneeling in front of Natsu, looked away as he vomited into it. Wendy just focused on the boy in front of her and brought a hand to his forehead. Her hand glowed a dim green color and she closed her eyes. Natsu sat there looking at Wendy and panting. They stayed like that for a moment or two, before Wendy opened her eyes and dropped her hand. She was about to turn and say something to Lucy, but she looked up suddenly at Natsu.

Natsu's eyes were now closed and he was slowly tilting forwards. Wendy outstretched her arms as he fell, and managed to catch him...though only for a moment.

"Ugh, he's...so heavy. He's crushing me...Lucy, Carla help," Wendy asked as she flailed while Natsu leaned on her. "He's really hot too...oww…" she added.

Lucy, Carla and Happy all ran over to lift Natsu off of Wendy. She let out a sigh of relief as she pressed a hand to her chest.

"Are you alright Wendy?" Carla asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. He's not hot enough to actually burn anyone...though he does have quite a high fever," she said frowning. Wendy looked up at Happy who was flying through the air with the now unconscious Natsu. She looked down and began to fidget. "I'm not really sure what to say about Natsu's condition…" she said.

"For now why don't make sure Natsu is comfortable in the infirmary?" Lucy suggested. "I'm sure he'll be alright in the end though. He's Natsu after all," she added trying to lighten the mood.

. . .


	2. For a Friend

Natsu had been unconscious for about an hour now. Happy and Carla were sharing a chair right by his bedside. Every so often Happy would mumble Natsu's name and fidget.

"I'm really worried Carla. I don't know what to do for him…" Happy said with tears in his eyes.

"Yeah well, Wendy and Poluchka don't seem to know either," Carla said now standing up with her arms crossed. Her posture was straight and she was facing away from Happy; her nose pointing in the air.

At her words, Happy mumbled, "I-If even t-they don't know then what are w-w-we going to do? Carlaaaa!" Happy finally burst into tears as he said Carla's name. Her expression sank and she shook her head before saying, "Happy, that's not what I meant. They'll help Natus somehow. I'm sure of it and you should be too. You know how skilled Wendy and Poluchka are."

"I-I know," Happy responded sniffling. He looked down frowning. Carla glanced over at Happy from her shoulder. She let her arms fall by her side and turned towards Happy. Carla gently placed a paw on his shoulder with a sullen expression on her face.

Happy looked up at her and blubbered, "Carla!" He hugged her lower half immediately afterwards, and she just stood there for a moment. She placed a paw on his head, held him close to her and closed her eyes as she whispered, "Everything will be fine Happy."

Across the room were Wendy, Poluchka, and Lucy. They were listening to Wendy try to explain what exactly was wrong with Natsu.

"I...uh I'm not really sure what it is, but I can sense a strange and definitely foreign magic coming from him," Wendy said with her eyebrows drawn together. She fidgeted for a moment and then added, "As time goes on, the magic coming off of him seems to be getting stronger." Wendy looked over at Natsu and then back towards the group. "I don't even need to use my healing magic to sense it anymore. I just need to be somewhat near him...but I don't know what that means," she said with a dejected tone.

"Hmmm. I also noticed some weird magic coming from him, though I didn't realize it was becoming more powerful…" Poluchka said bringing a hand to her chin. She paused for a few minutes and then added, "We can assume a few things so far: first this unnatural magic is an effect of something Natsu interacted with; either on accident or by purpose, or this is the end result of a malicious curse cast by someone with a grudge; second this is advancing quickly...so we don't have much time to figure everything out. We probably have about twenty four more hours to do something for Natsu."

"But what will happen to him after that time period?" Lucy asked as she sat down with a thud on a nearby stool.

"I can't say for sure, but judging by the way things are going now...his body will most likely shut down," Poluchka responded. She turned to her medicine cabinet and began rummaging through the top drawers.

"We...we don't know anything about this magic Poluchka-san. I don't even know what spells to try to use...everything I've tried so far has just fizzled out. And-" Wendy looked down at her hands before continuing, "...this magic that's hurting Natsu just has such an evil feeling to it, that my own magic is so easily overwhelmed…" Wendy bit her lower lip and began to sniffle. "I-I just feel like I'm so use-use-" Her voice broke off as her emotions took over. Wendy's sadness came out in small stifled hiccups.

Poluchka turned around and looked at Lucy's blank stare and then Wendy's tears. She brought a heavy fist down on the counter of the medicine cabinet. Lucy and Wendy both jumped and looked at her. "I'm disappointed. The two of you hear some bad news and this is how you react?" Poluchka asked them with her voice tense. "So what if we don't know anything about this magic? Or if our own doesn't affect it? We have the time and we're going to use it to fix this," she said as she turned around to look at the girls again. Her eyes glowed with an intensity as she continued, "If it was either of you in that bed, do you honestly think Natsu would sit here and accept even for a moment the possibly of his not saving you?"

Lucy and Wendy were silent in response.

"Of course he wouldn't," Poluchka finished, now rummaging through the medicine cabinet again. Lucy clenched her teeth together and stood up. She looked over at Wendy who was wiping her eyes dry with a new determined air about her.

"You're right Poluchka-san," said Lucy.

"We're going to save Natsu-san. No matter what it takes," Wendy added in.

"We're done doing nothing," Lucy said. Poluchka smiled and turned towards them holding a large vial of clear liquid.

"Good. First I suggest you two take a few hours to gather information and decide if this is due to something he ate, or because of a curse. Don't forget to figure out what sort of magic this is as well. Return when you have as much information as possible, and we'll decide what to do next from there," Poluchka said with her tone as stern as a drill sergeant. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth slightly to add, "I almost forgot...I want you two to take this vial with you. It's a potion I made myself. All you have to do is take one sip each and you'll be able to see where Natsu has been, going back about a week or so. That should help you figure out who might have cast it, or where he picked up the malicious magic. Make sure to take small sips because each time you do, the effect will last only five minutes, and I've already attuned this potion to Natsu specifically. To have to do that again would take up too much time." Poluchka handed the rectangular vial to Lucy.

"How did you attune this to work only on Natsu?" asked Wendy.

"I put a few strands of his hair in the potion," Poluchka responded.

"O-Oh…" mumbled Lucy as she looked down at the vial in her hand with a disgusted frown. "Great…" she said under her breath.

"Of course…" Wendy whispered with a bit of exasperation as she ran a hand through her hair.

"Well what are you two waiting for? Go!" ordered Poluchka bring her open palm down on the medicine cabinet this time.

Lucy and Wendy decided to take about half an hour to gather their things together and then leave to do research and interrogate Magnolia.


End file.
